Evaluation of psychometric properties of the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-40) in Mexican women

The present study was designed to examine the psychometric properties of the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-40) in Young women of Mexico. The EAT demonstrated an adequate level of internal consistency, Cronbach's alpha = 0.72 in a non-clinical population (n = 2168), and 0.76 in a sample with eating disorders (n = 60). A principal-components analysis with varimax rotation yielded seven factors accounting for 37.2% of the total variance: 1) Desire of thinness, 2) Avoidance of fat food, 3) Preoccupation for the food, 4) Perceived social pressure, 5) Obsessions and compulsions, 6) Stereotyped eating patterns-styles, and 7) Compensatory behaviors. Finally, EAT scores and the seven factors were good predictors of group membership (with eating disorder group VS. control group).